Voices & Images

It's brilliant!

Thank you very much from Russia. Audio recording is a very high quality.

Good

Excellent 1st album from a very under-rated band from Germany. I originally got this whilst living in Berlin in late 80's but much better now remastered. There are Depeche Mode influences there but they have their own character. Very big group in Germany.

Good

Voices and Images was the debut album of Camouflage, and already one of their best in years before the release of the likes of Sensor to achieve this original greatness again.It has all the ingredients of a decent synthpop album: catchy synth hooks, bubbling basslines, snappy drum programming and some semi-political concerned lyrics.Some say, Camouflage is just a clone of Depeche Mode. While this may hold true for certain tracks (at least on their debut), it doesn't do the band justice in their whole (and already on this debut there are tracks that sound totally unlike Depeche Mode).Will not give a song-by-song run-down. Only mention the best or most remarkable tracks."That Smiling" Face already doesn't sound too much like Depeche Mode. Musically it's quite simplistic and repetitive (borrowing from the likes of Kraftwerk or YMO), while the vocals are sung out with a whole heart."Neighbours" is the song where the influence from Depeche Mode seems the most obvious (e.g. listen to "New Dress" for comparison). It's lyrics are semi-political (quite angry,) and the music indeed very Depeche Mode, which is a good thing (using a great band like Depeche Mode as a primary influence, you can't go any wrong, they're not some cookie-cutter band after all)."The Great Commandment" was the first and most successful single from the album, and granted the band their first (and in some cases only) hit in quite a number of countries. It contains all the ingredients of a typical Camouflage song from that era: driving, propelling basslines, a snappily programmed drumbeat (with some nice breaks and effects), a catchy lead-synthhook, and those typically concerned, semi-political lyrics."Strangers Thoughts" was the second single from the album, much less successful than Commandment, but not much lesser great. The verse and choruses are quite contrastive: the verse with only one vocal and sparse instrumentation, while the chorus is fully instrumented and features choir-like vocals to accompany the main vocal (semi-political, concerned again)."Where Has the Childhood Gone" is comparatively minimalist and almost Kraftwerkian (rather than Depeche Mode) in its style/approach, with lyrics lamenting the loss of youth and innocence."Music for Ballerinas" is an instrumental track, quite solemn or pompous, with some classical elements."I Once Had a Dream" sounds less Depeche Mode, more the likes of OMD (another great synth-band), combining the metronomic with the elegiac; a sparse waltz-like synth instrumentation, some stomping industrial percussion and fully heartfelt vocals (OMD's "Stanlow" comes to mind a bit). The first vocal/sung part segues into another pompous instrumental section/conclusion (which goes on a tad too long for my taste)."They Catch Secrets" sounds more mature (including some nice, eerily sounding synth strings) and seems to have a darker edge than most of the album tracks (albeit being quite short). This darker edge is also reflected in the lyrics (mentioning the word suicide along the way). Vaguely gothic (the lyrics and those eerie synth strings mentioned)."Pompeji" is a satisfying closer to the album (the CD version). An instrumental track (totally unlike Depeche Mode), with some ominously pounding bassdrum, unsettling sound effects and a general atmosphere of gloom or dark despair. Really gothic, or dark ambient if you like (faint similarities to certain tracks by early Cabaret Voltaire here).All in all I find that a decent and fulfilling synthpop album. Maybe not as grandiose as the best Depeche Mode albums, but deserving credit in its own right.There are only two minor weaknesses here (the reason I give it just 4 stars):- Some tracks sound too much alike each other, very similar to what has already been played before (e.g. "Winner Takes Nothing" or "From Ay to Bee").- The lyrics/language is quite weird in parts, i.e. their English on this their debut album is not very good (even I as a German can see that); there are a few major grammatical or lexical mistakes (wth is 'predumptious glory' or 'a testalizing thing'). And even without those mistakes, some of the lyrics just seem outright weird or misplaced (e.g. singing '...shows the contempt between the world and their embarrassing pavement', when what they really wanted to say is '...the difference between the world and its disgraceful poverty' {I can tell that from the German 'translations' transcribed next to the English lyrics}).Apart from those two minor points of criticism, I, as I said, find that a decent and fulfilling synthpop album, and a real pity that they didn't keep up with this style for some time. Maybe they took the "Depeche Mode clone" accusations a bit too serious, feeling compelled to completely rework their style for the next couple of albums (featuring less synthesizers, more organic instrumentation like guitars) - mostly to their disadvantage (to my opinion) as the next couple of albums couldn't hold a candle to their debut, and only later albums like Sensor caught up on that greatness again.